The Trainer's Return
by The Hooded Author
Summary: Ash Ketchum has cut himself off from his friends and family for the last ten years, but due to recent events he has decided it is finally time to return to Kanto.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

It started with a phone call. A phone call from a boy Misty had convinced herself she had stopped caring about, but the rush of feelings that washed over her when she saw his name flash on her mobile told her that she had been lying.

She could feel her heart thumping in her chest as her shaky hand picked up the phone and pressed the answer button. "Ash?" she asked as her mind struggled to process the fact that she was talking to him again after all these years.

"Misty, is that you?" His voice sounded panicked, almost fearful. Not at all like the voice she remembered from all those years ago.

"Yeah, it's me. And it's –" She paused to look at her phone. "- three AM. What do you want?" What the hell was he calling for? It had been, what, ten years now? There was no way that it was just out of courtesy. For a fleeting moment she thought that maybe it was something else, the thing she'd hoped for so desperately back when they'd first met, but she quickly pushed the thought out of her head.

"Sorry, I guess I'm still running on Kalos time. The thing is, I… I'm in a bit of trouble, and I could really use some help."

"Wait, you don't talk to me in almost ten years and the first phone call I get from you is about asking for a favour? You have some nerve." She sat up in her bed, annoyed at herself for letting her thoughts get carried away. "Honestly, did you even –"

"Misty, they took Pikachu," he said, cutting her off.

There was a stunned silence as she tried to figure out what to say next.

After what felt like an eternity, she finally managed to gather her thoughts together enough to ask, "W-who?"

"Team Rocket," he answered. "Same as always. But this time I let them get away. Argh, how could I have been so stupid?!"

"C-calm down, Ash. Talk me through exactly what happened," she said, straightening herself up. She was calmer now, and the confusion that came from a mixture of being woken up in the middle of the night and being suddenly told shocking news was finally beginning to wear off. Now, all that was left was a feeling of guilt over getting annoyed at Ash.

"Well, I was at a sort of… gathering, I guess, in Kalos for Elite Four challengers, and I guess I must have let my guard down, because one moment Pikachu was sitting right next to me and the next he was being carried away by those three.

"I chased after them, but by the time I reached the exit they had disappeared. I looked everywhere, but it was clear that they were long gone." He was talking fast and was taking very short breaths. It was clear that he was distraught over the whole thing.

"Do you know why they attacked now? I thought they'd given up," she asked him.

"I thought so too, but apparently not. I… I guess when I stopped travelling they lost track of my whereabouts. But this event was publicised well, so I suppose they saw my name on the guest list and saw it as an opportunity."

Yeah, that made sense. Misty herself vaguely remembered seeing something about the event in the paper, which meant that it must have been publicised in Kanto.

"Misty, I get the feeling that they've taken Pikachu back to Kanto," he said, getting back on topic. "Isn't that what they always talked about? Taking him to the boss?"

"Yeah, you're probably right," Misty said to him absentmindedly, struggling to find any words of comfort.

"Well, I only really called to ask if they've got a secret base or something. I know it's a long shot, but you've lived in Kanto for your entire life, so…"

"Ash, has it really been that long since you last talked to any of us?" she asked. His silence informed her that he didn't know what she was talking about. "I know where their base is. We all do." She sighed deeply.

"Team Rocket are hiding out in the Celadon City," she told him "They've got a massive, highly secured skyscraper. Everyone knows it, but they've got bribes and blackmails over everyone in the police. They pretty much control the entire region."

Again, there was a silence, but this time it was Ash's turn to be stunned.

"How long?" was all he could bring himself to say.

"How long have we been living like this?" Misty asked to clarify. "I don't know, three, maybe four years."

"I'm sorry," he said, his voice full of guilt. "I'm sorry I haven't been there to help."

More silence as Misty sorted out her thoughts. On one hand, she had every right to be angry at him. After all, he disappeared from her life without so much as a goodbye. No calls, no texts, no letters, nothing for ten long years.

But then, on the other hand, this was her friend. One she cared deeply about. Had he not earned her forgiveness?

It was Ash who broke the silence. "Misty, I'm coming to Kanto. I… I need to get Pikachu back!" His voice sounded stronger, more determined. Almost like the voice she had once known…

"Ash, I want you to promise me one thing," she said. "I want you to promise that you'll come to Cerulean first. I know you too well to think I can stop you from doing something stupid, but if you're going to do something stupid anyway I don't want you to do it alone."

"Well, I'm not sure I like the idea of putting you in danger, but I know you too well enough to think arguing with you would do any good," he said with a weak laugh. "I'll be in Kanto tomorrow. See you then?"

"Okay," Misty replied. "Bye for now." She put her phone back onto her bedside table and lied back down. As she wondered if meeting him again was really such a good idea, she drifted back to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Misty woke up early the next morning, fully aware that her small house would need quite a bit of cleaning before Ash arrived. Normally she wouldn't mind too much about the mess, but today was different for two reasons:

1\. It was Ash, and despite what she had told herself all through the night after his call, she had to admit that it was possible that some of the feelings she held for him ten years ago still remained to this day.  
2\. She hadn't cleaned up at all in several weeks and it was getting to the point where she could barely see the surfaces of her table or her kitchen worktop for the empty takeaway boxes, dirty dishes and month-old magazines.

Once she had sent off the texts that she needed to (one to Daisy saying that she couldn't work at the gym today, and another to Ash telling him exactly how to get to her house) she decided that she should probably make a start on tidying up. She now stood in her dressing gown, looking around her house with her hands on her hips and trying to decide on where to begin.

She eventually opted for the coffee table in the living room, thinking that it would probably be the easiest job to do. She grabbed a large plastic bag from the kitchen and quickly tried to scoop all the old magazines into it. Of course, since she had not quite fully woken up, it proved much more difficult than she had first thought and most of them ended up falling into a pile on the floor.

As she bent down to pick them up, her eyes were drawn to one in particular. The magazine in question was not particularly interesting – some boring celebrity gossip magazine that one of her sisters had probably left during their last visit– but what caught her attention was the banner on the bottom of the cover that read "Win a free holiday to Kalos and a chance to meet the strongest trainers of the region".

She absentmindedly dropped the rest of the pile into the bag before flicking through the magazine to find the competition. The article looked fairly familiar – she'd probably skimmed through the magazine one day when she'd been bored. The page was decorated with a large photo of Kalos' Elite Four standing next to the champion.

The competition seemed to be giving readers the chance to win a ticket to some kind of event otherwise reserved for people who had challenged the Kalos League. It was pretty clear that it was the same gathering that Ash had been attending when he lost his pikachu.

Misty gave the article one last scan to see if his name had been mentioned anywhere, but of course there was no sign of it. After all, it wasn't like Ash had won the league or anything. There was no reason for him to get a special mention.

Slightly disappointed, she dropped the magazine into the bag with the others, carried it outside and threw it into the bin before heading back inside to make a start on the rest of the house. Before she could do so, however, the doorbell rang.

She took one last look at the kitchen, still a hopeless mess of dirty plates and old takeaway boxes, before dashing towards the door. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves before she yanked the door open.

"Hey! It's been a… while…" She tried to make her voice sound as enthusiastic as possible despite her fairly tired state, but she trailed off when she realised that she was currently staring into a pair of lips.

She took a step back and looked up slightly. He had grown. Of course he had grown, she hadn't seen him since he was, what, fifteen? Still, he'd clearly grown faster than she had, because she could have sworn the last time she saw him they were roughly the same height – now he was about half-a-head taller.

She examined his face, taking in every new detail that had surfaced while he'd been away. He looked so similar to the boy she'd once known, yet so different at the same time. His hair, now no longer hidden under a cap, was far shorter, more tidy and better-kept than it once had been. There was something in his eyes that wasn't quite the same either – they were lacking their usual fire, the determination that had once been there. They seemed almost… sad.

Of course, Misty probably looked just as unfamiliar to him. Her hair was far longer than it had been back then, and she usually just let it hang free now. She also guessed that she'd put on a bit of weight since they'd last met – after all, it was hard keeping a healthy diet when so much of her time was taken up by fighting challengers.

"Hey," Ash said. His voice wasn't quite the same either – it had of course gotten deeper, but it also sounded somehow weaker and less confident.

They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them sure what to say or do next. As she looked into his eyes, Misty felt a strange emotion bubble up inside her. She couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she remembered feeling it a lot back when they had been travelling together.

Suddenly, she realised what it was she was feeling and slapped Ash across the face.

"What the hell?!" he exclaimed in shock as he rubbed his cheek. "What was that for?"

"Sorry, sorry," Misty said apologetically. "I don't know what came over me, I just suddenly felt so… angry. Here, come inside, I'll get you some ice."

Ash laughed weakly as he followed her into the house. "Still the same old Misty, huh. What, did you have a sudden flashback to the whole bike thing?"

"No, that isn't it…" She disappeared into the kitchen as she tried to figure out exactly why she was mad at him.

Ash sat down on the living room's couch as he waited for her to return. After a few moments, she emerged with a large bag of ice which she promptly handed to him.

"I think it's just that… well, none of us have heard from you in so long. No visits, no phone calls, no letters, nothing."

"Yeah, sorry about that…" He lowered his head, still holding the ice bag against his face. "I guess I just… panicked."

"Panicked? Why?" She nervously sat down on the couch next to him, suddenly wishing that she had another chair.

"I don't even really know, to be honest. It's just… I'd been challenging different leagues for a good few years, and I still wasn't getting any closer to winning. And my last challenge… Well, let's just say it didn't end too well. I made some new friends, like always, but I… I guess they weren't who I thought they were."

Misty raised an eyebrow at the news.

"They all left the moment I lost. I ended up stuck in some far off region with no friends near enough to help me out and just enough money to get me to Kalos."

"Why didn't you just call one of us? We'd have done everything in our power to help you." All her anger had evaporated, with a deep concern for her friend taking its place.

"I wanted to, don't get me wrong. It's just that… well, I was ashamed."

"Ashamed? That's a surprisingly complex emotion for you, Ash," she said with a forced laugh. She regretted the pathetic attempt at humour the moment she looked at his face and saw that he didn't look any happier.

"There's a bit more to it than what I've told you, but do you mind if we don't get into all of it just now?"

"Y-yeah, sure." She remembered that he never had been too great at discussing his emotions.

"I went to Kalos in the hopes of meeting back up with some of my friends there, but I found that I was too embarrassed to approach even them. So instead, I settled down, got a job, found an affordable apartment and moved on with my life. I still talk to my mum, obviously, and she's been helping out where she can. I wanted to call you guys so badly, but… I don't know. I guess I kept making excuses, and before I knew it an entire year had passed. After that, I guess it just… felt too late." He lifted his head back up and looked at Misty, a sad smile etched on his face.

"Oh Ash…" she said, trying to think of a way to put him at ease. Making people feel better wasn't something she had ever been good at – that was usually his area. Hesitantly, she put her hand on his shoulder in what she hoped was a comforting manner. "You could've called me. You could've called any of us. That's what we're here for. We're your friends."

"Yeah, I guess… Thanks Misty." As he stood up, a smile flickered across his face and he almost looked like the Ash she knew, but it quickly vanished. "Anyway, how about we go get Pikachu back?"

"Oh, right, sorry. I guess we got a little carried away there, huh?" she said as she stood up and started to walk towards the bedroom. "Just give me a couple of minutes to get dressed and we can head off to Celadon. We'll take the car, it'll be quicker."

"Yeah, sounds good… Wait, you have a car?!" Ash asked in shock, but Misty had already shut the bedroom door.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Misty never had been the best driver. In fact, if she was being honest, she wasn't particularly skilled at anything other than battling. After all, being a gym leader meant that she was constantly facing off against challengers, which didn't give her much free time to pursue other possible talents. Sure, she got a few days off every month when one of her sisters could be bothered running the gym, but she usually spent those reading or sleeping.

In other words, she had learned to drive well enough to get her license and then barely touched her car again. She had occasionally driven down the road for groceries when it was raining or she was feeling particularly lazy, but she had certainly never driven anywhere as far as Celadon.

As her tiny car jerked and skidded down long, winding roads at a slightly-too-fast speed, she nervously took a quick glance at Ash then quickly turned her attention back to the road in front of her. He was staring out the window, apparently in deep thought and oblivious to the fact that he was bouncing up and down in his seat.

"Hey, you okay?" Misty asked with concern, now keeping her eyes glued to the road in front of her.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," he said, trying and completely failing to sound sincere. He flashed her a forced grin, but she was far too preoccupied to notice.

"Pikachu will be fine," she assured him. "Don't worry, we'll get him back. Like always."

"Hmm," he muttered doubtfully. "This isn't the same as always though, is it? They've managed to get him all the way back to their boss, and I don't have any pokémon to help us out this time."

"Oh come on, that's not the Ash I know. Where's your fighting spirt? We're going to march in there, get Pikachu back and return home by dinner time." She tried her best to sound confident, but her voice betrayed her emotions. The truth was, Team Rocket had become far more powerful over the past few years, and she really wasn't sure if they stood a chance.

Ash turned his head away and continued to look out the window, clearly not convinced.

"Besides," she added in one last desperate attempt to cheer him up, "if we need to fight them, I'm here. I've gotten a lot stronger since you've left." She turned to give him a cheeky wink and as a result nearly drove into a large field ahead of them.

They sat quietly for a while as Misty balanced concentrating on her driving with trying to think of ways to comfort her friend.

Ash just continued to stare out the window for most of the journey, struggling to take in how different the region looked since he had left. As the drove through Saffron City, he noticed just how much bigger it had gotten – most of the buildings had grown like trees into massive pillars reaching towards the sky, and it was definitely taking them longer to drive through it than it would have done ten years ago (although it was entirely possible that Misty was just lost).

Yet despite how spectacular it all looked, he noticed that there seemed to be at least one or two homeless people begging for money in every street they turned down. It seemed like an odd contrast. How could there be so many more houses yet so many more people without homes?

"So, what've you been up to?" Ash asked, tearing his eyes away from the bustling city.

"Oh, not much," Misty said, relieved that he'd finally broken the silence. "Working at the gym mostly. It's… not exactly easy, and I don't have much spare time, but it pays the bills. Ah, there we go, I knew the exit was around here somewhere." The car suddenly turned sharply up what appeared to be a one-way road.

The buildings started to become more and more spaced out until eventually they disappeared completely and the lush trees of route 8 were finally visible.

The car speeded down the route and eventually jerked to a halt just outside Celadon. Ash and Misty clambered out and stumbled about for a bit, both finding it rather difficult to stand after such a bumpy ride.

"Sorry about that," Misty said, trying her best to straighten herself up. "I, er, haven't driven in a while."

"Yeah, I can see that," Ash said, laughing.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Celadon City had, much like Saffron City, changed a great deal since Ash had left. Unlike Saffron City, however, it had somehow grown quieter as it expanded. The few ordinary citizens outside seemed uptight and nervous. Ash watched one woman turn her head to look behind her several times as she hastily walked down the street.

The only other people in the city were men in odd, leather coats who stood rigidly at each corner. All of them wore belts with pokéballs attached.

"Hey, who are they?" Ash asked, gesturing towards one of the strange men.

"That's Team Rocket's men," Misty said grimly.

"What?!" Ash exclaimed in shock. Misty firmly pressed a finger against her lips. "Sorry, sorry," he said, trying to keep his voice down. "It's just… there are so many of them. And they're not wearing the uniform."

"Yeah, well, they had a sudden rise in numbers recently. And they try to be at least slightly discreet; it makes it easier to avoid trouble from the courts if they don't have the logo plastered to their chests. Now come on, we'd better move on if we don't want to look to suspicious."

The two of them headed further into the city as they tried their best to avoid making eye-contact with the men. Misty could feel their eyes burning onto her back as she walked past them. They most likely knew who she was, and a gym leader strolling into their city probably wasn't a normal occurrence. She was trying her best to make it look like she was walking with purpose, but she had a feeling she was swinging her arms with a tad too much force.

While she wasn't sure of the layout of the city, she knew that the Rocket's hideout was the large tower right in the centre, so by walking towards that she managed to find her way their without too much trouble.

She paused for a moment to steel herself. What they were about to do was incredibly dangerous and would most likely end with both of them being imprisoned, if not killed. Still, if she didn't do something, Ash would probably just go in himself. At least with her there, there was a _chance_ of success.

She took a deep breath and turned to her friend. He looked nervous, but he nodded silently to show he was still willing to go through with it. She nodded back before turning around and marching up to the guards in front of the building.

"Hello," she started, trying to stop her voice from trembling. "We've come to see your boss."

The guards stared at her for a moment, trying to process her request. Finally, one of them stepped forward. "Is that so?" he said in an almost patronising tone. "Do you have an appointment?"

"W-we don't need an appointment," Misty said nervously as she took a step back from the guard. She reached a hand into her coat pocket and pulled out a thin, plastic card. "Misty Waterflower, Cerulean City gym leader," she said a little too quickly as she shoved the card in his face.

The guard laughed. "Yeah, we know who you are. It makes no difference. If you wanna see the boss, you go through us."

Both guards unclipped a pokéball from their belts and clicked the buttons, releasing a weezing and an arbok onto the ground in front of them.

Misty pulled her own pokéball out of her coat pocket and released her politoed. The situation wasn't too bad, and she was fairly confident she could handle her opponents. She was just about to order an attack when Ash tapped her shoulder and pointed behind her.

Looking round, she saw about a dozen Rockets heading up the street towards them. Each of them were releasing their own pokémon and while most of them seemed to only have weaker creatures, like rattata and growlithe, it was still a problem.

"Ash, stay with me," she said, grabbing him by the wrist and pulling him in closer. The three of them – Ash, Misty and Politoed – stood in a tight huddle, ready for the battle of their lives.

The crowd of Rockets and pokémon closed in, completely surrounding them and leaving them with no chance of escape. Misty knew there was no way that Politoed could take them all on, but it could maybe at least take out some of the weaker ones.

No, that would be pointless. With a sigh, she held out her pokéball and called Politoed back. "Sorry Ash," she said. "Looks like I wasn't much of a help after all."

"Don't worry about it. I knew it was hopeless from the start."

She looked into his eyes and smiled sadly. He really had changed. She didn't want to believe it before, but he wasn't the same boy she once knew. He was, of course, 100 % correct – it was hopeless. But the old Ash wouldn't have cared. He'd have given her some words of encouragement or hope despite the impossible situation. That was the Ash she needed right now.

She turned back to face her opponents. They were all grinning from ear to ear, clearly choosing to play with their pray before pouncing.

She was just about to close her eyes and accept her fate when she heard the click of a pokéball come from somewhere down the street.

"Steelix, use iron tail!" a familiar voice yelled.

A large, metallic snake-like creature slammed into the ground between her and her opponents and swept through the crowd. The weaker pokémon who weren't fast enough to dodge were knocked into the air and fell to the ground unconscious. Most of the Rockets managed to leap out of the way of the attack, but a couple were smacked to the side as well.

The people left standing turned round in shock to try and catch a glimpse of their attacker. As the dust cleared from the battlefield, they saw a tall, bearded man walking calmly and silently towards them.

"Hey Brock," Misty said. "Took you long enough."

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

"What do you three want this time?" Giovanni said irritably as a group of Team Rocket members walked nervously into his office. He remembered their faces and all the trouble they had caused him (and indeed the entire organisation) in the past, but he couldn't for the life of him remember their names. It didn't surprise him to see that they were the only Rockets stupid enough to wear the old, logoed outfits.

"We've got something for you," the red-haired woman said. Jenny? Julie? Whatever, it'd come to him.

"I hope it isn't as much of a disappointment as the usual stuff you bring me."

"Oh trust me, we're sure you'll like this one." The blue-haired man.

"It might even fit in with your plan." The talking pokémon. That one he did remember – Meowth. The pre-evolved form of his beloved Persian.

"Well, hurry up then. Show me."

The meowth stepped back out the door and dragged something into the room. Giovanni stood up from his desk and leaned over to get a better look at it as the woman picked it up and carried it over to his desk.

The "thing", as it turned out, was nothing special - just a standard-order glass cage that Rockets used to contain pokémon they had stolen. What was inside the cage wasn't particularly impressive either – a small, yellow rat. The creature looked up at him weakly and let out a quiet, defeated sound.

"A pikachu?" Giovanni asked with exasperation as he sat back down. He should have known not to get his hopes up. "You do know there's plenty of those in the Viridian Forest, right?"

"Ah, but this one is different," the man said with a smile, stepping closer to the desk. "Trust us. We know."

Giovanni smirked. He had to be crazy to even think about believing those three idiots. But, on the other hand, he was getting desperate. He needed powerful pokémon, and he needed them badly. Besides, it wasn't like he himself had much to do, other than sit around and wait for his employees to do his work for him.

"Very well," he said, hardly believing what he was saying. "I'll trust you, for now. But if this pikachu turns out to be anything less than perfect, you'll all be fired immediately. You understand?"

"Yes sir," the three of them said simultaneously, falling into a line and saluting.

"Good. Of course, I can't use it like this. No, I'll need to evolve it… Go fetch me a thunder stone. Now."

The three of them saluted once more, then turned abruptly and left the office.

Giovanni turned his attention to the creature on his desk. It looked pathetic in its current state, but it had most likely burnt out most of its power trying to break out of its cage. A quick rest was sure to fix it up. He had to admit, even though it was trapped and defenceless, he sensed something… different about it. Something powerful.

He sat back in his chair and smiled to himself. Yes, he had a feeling this creature would be just right.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The man walking towards them was almost unrecognisable to Ash. Sure, there were still some features that gave Brock away – his eyes, for one. But he looked so much more… mature than he had been the last time Ash had seen him. The beard was part of it, he supposed, as well as the fact that his hair was shorter and not quite as spiky as it had used to be. The lines on his face were harder as well, more serious, but the moment he made eye-contact with Misty he broke out into a familiar grin.

Misty, on the other hand, didn't look so happy, which was especially odd given the fact that Brock had just saved their lives. Her arms were folding under her chest, her face waiting for an answer in an expectant pout.

"Hey guys," Brock said, returning his steelix to its poké ball as he approached them. Now that he was closer, Ash noticed how tall he had gotten over the past few years. He was having to look up just to maintain eye-contact. Brock had always been taller than him, but this was frankly ridiculous. "Sorry I took so long."

"Go on," Misty said, eyeing him up and down. "Give us your excuse."

Brock shrugged. "I couldn't find a replacement for the gym. Not everyone has sisters they can call on, you know."

Misty didn't let her pout drop, her look of frustrated anger almost flawless. _Almost._ Ash still knew her well enough to know that she had already completely forgiven Brock, and he suspected that Brock realised it too. "Whatever," she said with a sigh. It was an attempt to make it seem like she was only dropping the topic for the moment, but it was obvious that it was already water under the bridge. "Can we just hurry this whole thing up?"

"In a moment, Misty," Brock said. "Let me take a minute to appreciate this reunion." He slapped his hand down on Ash's shoulder, leaning over to look him in the eye. "How have things been, Ash?" he asked, a hint of sadness in his voice.

Ash's gaze darted off to the right, refusing to meet his old friend's eyes. What was he supposed to say, after all this time? With Misty he'd had time to prepare everything he wanted to say, and he'd still ended up far more awkward than he'd have liked. "I've been fine," he said eventually, a total lie. Things had never been further from fine.

Whether Brock bought it or not wasn't clear, but he smiled as he said, "That's good to hear."

"Look, can we please go get Pikachu back already?" Misty asked, interrupting their moment. "I really want to teach Giovanni a lesson." She pounded her fist into the palm of her other hand. The burning anger was back in her eyes and Ash found himself glad that, for once, it wasn't aimed at him. Well, _most_ of it wasn't aimed at him, anyway.

He smiled to himself. There they all were, after so many years, back together again. Brock was once more playing the role of the responsible adult, and Misty was just as intense as she had been back then. For just a moment, Ash could pretend that things were back to normal, just the same as they had always been.

They weren't, of course, and the thought was fleeting. Even ignoring all his own feelings of shame, Pikachu wasn't with them. At the very least, they had to do something about that.

"You really think we're just going to waltz right in there?" one of the grunts piped up. He was probably trying to sound calm, but his voice betrayed his fear.

Misty shot him a glare. "Yeah, I do. Otherwise, my friend here will order his steelix to take down you lot next."

That shut the grunt up, and the rest didn't protest either as they walked into the building.

Ash couldn't help but be stunned by the size of the foyer. His eyes wandered around the room, taking in every nook and cranny. The floor was a polished marble, there was a seating area in the middle made up of several, plush couches, and a chandelier hung from the high ceiling.

There was a desk at the back of the room, behind which a young woman sat glaring at the three of them. She wasn't wearing a long coat, like the grunts outside, but rather an expensive looking suit, and she was firmly holding a poké ball in one of her hands. It was obvious that she wasn't going to let them past without a fight.

Aside from her, though, the room was eerily empty, and it took Ash a good moment to work out why there weren't more guards. Eventually, though, he realised why there didn't need to be too many people to stop them from getting to the top floor. It was because, simply put, it was _impossible_ to get to the top floor.

Other than the one they had come in from, there wasn't a single door in the room. Nor were there any staircases, or elevators, or any other obvious way to the next floor. Even if they could manage to get past the woman, there was no way they could reach Giovanni.

The thought made Ash want to fall to his knees and accept defeat, or just turn around and leave and go back to his quiet, happy life in Kalos. But he couldn't do that. Pikachu was counting on him to be strong, to be brave. To be the person he had once been.

It wasn't just Pikachu, either. Brock and Misty were looking at him expectantly, although at first he didn't understand why. Then he remembered, though, of all those times they had gotten into trouble before. It had always been him who had led them forwards, who had rushed headfirst into the fight without hesitation, no matter the risks.

But what could he do now? All his pokémon were far out of his reach, either resting with Professor Oak in Pallet Town or running around in the wild. Pikachu had been his only ally for the last ten years. He was, all things considered, pretty much useless in this scenario.

He looked at Misty and gave a small, apologetic shrug. She rolled her eyes with a groan, but she understood his meaning and she took charge, however begrudgingly.

"We're here to see Giovanni," she called to the woman, stepping forwards ahead of the group.

"I know," the woman said. Her voice was flat, almost bored. She had probably been through this kind of thing dozens of times before. To her, they were nothing but a nuisance. "But I can't let you do that."

Misty patted her leg, refusing to take her eyes off the woman, and her politoed joined her side. Brock detached a poké ball from his belt, ready to throw it at any moment. Ash merely moved behind the two of them, wishing he was anywhere else. Why had he even bothered coming? If there was a fight, he'd only get in the way.

The woman pressed the button on her poké ball, calmly ordering an attack. As the beam of light spread outwards, Misty and Brock screamed their commands simultaneously, and within an instant, all hell had broken loose.

The woman's nidoqueen tore down the foyer, charging towards the three trainers. Politoed was the first to reach it, firing off a bubblebeam at its face, but it simply barrelled through, effortlessly knocking the water type to the side.

The nidoqueen was mere feet away from them now, and Ash winced, fully expecting it to crash through there group. Before it could, however, Brock's golem had materialised in front of it. The golem pressed its arms against its opponent, slowing it down but failing to stop it. The nidoqueen still pushed forwards, Golem skidding against the ground as it struggled to hold its opponent in place.

"Earthquake," the woman said flatly.

Ash let out a cry of shock as the ground shook violently below his feet. Although he tried to keep his balance, it was no use, and he toppled over to his left, landing painfully on his arm. His gaze was torn away from the others as he fell, and it wasn't until he stumbled back to his feet that he saw the true extent of the damage.

The attack had knocked Golem off its feet, and it now lay on its back at the entrance, struggling to stand up. Nidoqueen had taken its place, and now stood where the three trainers had been just moments ago. Like Ash, Brock and Misty had both been knocked off their feet, and the nidoqueen was now standing over them, blocking any hope Ash had of getting to them.

Ash was about to shout out to warn them, even though they could both clearly see how much danger they were in. Before he could, however, Politoed had jumped behind the nidoqueen, firing off another bubblebeam at its back. The nidoqueen instantly turned its attention to the pokémon, swinging a punch at its tiny body. Politoed was sent flying across the room, but it gave Brock and Misty a chance to get to their feet.

Not that it mattered, though. There wasn't any way out of the room – the nidoqueen was surely not going to let them leave, and although Brock and Misty had more pokémon on them, Ash had a feeling that whatever they sent out wouldn't be a match for it. On top of that, there was a good chance that the woman had more pokémon on her, not to mention the fact that there were most likely countless other grunts walking around upstairs.

Ash stumbled back, shaking his head as he watched the nidoqueen tower menacingly over his friends. The whole thing was so… futile.

It was then that he felt something push down under his foot. At first he assumed it was just a loose tile, knocked out of place by the earthquake, but then there was a flash of green light and suddenly he wasn't in the foyer anymore.

No more Misty. No more Brock. No more battle.

He was instead standing in a long, narrow corridor. The floor was the same marble as the foyer, but the lighting was a lot dimmer and everything, from the walls to the ceiling to the floor, was covered in dirt and grime.

It took him a moment to grasp what had happened. It wasn't until he spun around and saw the window that he fully understood everything. For outside the window was Celadon City, just as it had always been, but the ground was now far, far below.

"Teleportation," he muttered to himself.

He had stood on a teleportation pad and, by doing so, he had done the one thing he had never wanted to do. He had abandoned his friends.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Misty stared slack-jawed at the place where Ash had been. He'd been right there, not that far from her reach, and in an instant, he was gone. How was that even possible?

Of course, she didn't have much time to ponder over what had happened. The nidoqueen was still looming over her and Brock and, as it swung a punch towards them, she only just managed to duck off to the side. Brock dived the other way, and the creature's fist collided with nothing but thin air.

Misty ran as far away from Brock and the pokémon as she could. Brock did the same, but in the opposite direction, and she hoped that the seconds the nidoqueen and its trainer took to make a decision would buy her enough time to come up with some kind of plan.

As she ran, she glanced over at her politoed, lying in a crumpled ball on the ground. It was abundantly clear that it wasn't going to get back up, so she quickly returned it to its poké ball. "I'm sorry," she whispered as she attached it to her belt.

Now that she was far enough away from the battle, she had the chance to look at the state of things properly. The pokémon wasn't chasing after her, instead focussing all its attention on Brock. Fortunately, it didn't look like Brock was having too much trouble protecting himself; his golem was back on its feet, and although it still wasn't managing to stop the nidoqueen in its tracks, it was doing a pretty good job of slowing it down.

It wasn't up to Brock to defeat it, anyway. As Misty knew, Nidoqueen was a ground type pokémon, which put her at a strong advantage. She may have momentarily lost that advantage, having been too concentrated on protecting Ash. But Ash was safe now, wherever he was.

She smiled to herself. When was the last time she had really cut loose on such a powerful pokémon? Finally, this was her chance to show off. She detached a poké ball from her belt and held it out in front of her. "Hey, asshole!" she called to the nidoqueen.

It turned its head away from its opponent and stared at her. She raised an eyebrow, as if to say _Come and get me_. It obviously got the meaning, because it let go of the golem and charged towards her, moving surprisingly fast given its bulk.

Before the nidoqueen got too close, she pressed the button on the ball, releasing her pokémon to meet it. Golduck stood up tall, ready to face its charging opponent. It never failed to amaze Misty how much more confident and powerful the thing had become, ever since it had evolved from the stupid psyduck a couple of years back.

"Confusion," she said, somewhat smugly. Golduck held its arms out in front of it, and for a moment, nothing seemed to have happened. But then the nidoqueen stopped moving, a baffled look on its face as it tried and failed to move its muscles. Misty heard an audible gasp from behind her, no doubt the nidoqueen's trainer finally turning her full attention to the battle.

Golduck didn't even have to move, as Nidoqueen was lifted of its feet and high into the air. It was clear by its face that it was panicking now, although it still couldn't move any of its limbs. Finally, Golduck dropped its hands, and Nidoqueen fell to the ground with a crash.

It tried to push itself back up, its arms shaking with the struggle of lifting its own weight. Before it could get back to its feet, though, Misty simply said, "Hydro pump."

Golduck tilted its head back and fired a massive blast of water towards its opponent. The attack never made contact, however, as the nidoqueen disappeared in a flash of light before it could hit.

"Alright, you win," the woman said. Misty turned to look her in the eye. She no longer looked bored, her face wide with surprise, shock and… fear? Misty couldn't help but smirk, but it didn't last. "I've already pressed the alarm, though. There'll be, oh, a dozen more trainers coming down to meet you? I'd recommend you run."

"Don't worry, there's no need for that," Brock said as he joined the two women. He'd already recalled his golem, apparently having realised there was no need for him to keep fighting.

"Brock, there's no way we can fight off that many of them," Misty whispered to him, not wanting to let the woman overhear.

"We don't need to," Brock said with a shrug. "While you two were battling, _I_ worked out where Ash went." He pointed to the place where Ash had been standing, and Misty followed his finger. It was difficult to see, but she could just about make out a small green patch on the tile.

"Teleportation pads," she said, suddenly understanding everything. That was why there weren't any staircases. They were using teleportation. "We need to hurry," she said, starting towards the pad Ash had stood on.

"Wait," Brock said, putting a hand on her shoulder. "There's another pad over there. If we split up, we can search the base faster."

"If we split up, we'll be _defeated_ faster," Misty protested. She really didn't like the idea of exploring the tower alone, and every minute they spent arguing was another minute they weren't helping Ash.

"Don't forget our mission, Misty," Brock said. "We're here to get Pikachu back. Nothing else matters right now. Besides, if we split up, they'll have to split up as well."

She wasn't convinced, and she was sure she could win the argument. On the other hand, though, that would take a while, and she needed to find Ash as quickly as possible. "All right," she said reluctantly. "You take the other one. I'll go after Ash."

Brock nodded and they walked their separate ways, both reaching their pads at the same time. They turned to give each other one last reassuring look.

"Good luck," the grunt said. Despite the fact that she'd just been defeated, there was a wide grin on her face, which sent a chill up Misty's spine. "You're going to need it."

Misty would have liked to come up with some kind of snappy retort, but instead she shot a glare at the woman and took a step backwards. There was a flash of green, and the world disappeared around her.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Ash had already wandered away from the spot the teleportation pad had taken him to. Before he'd moved on, he'd pressed down on the tile a couple of times with his foot, but apparently it wasn't a two-way system. So he'd left, realising that his best chance to find his friends was to keep going forwards.

As he wandered down the corridor, his thoughts turned to Misty and Brock, still fighting down below. They were strong trainers, stronger than he was anyway, so they probably stood a decent chance of winning, or at least holding their opponent off for long enough to get away. Truth be told, he hoped for the latter. How stupid of him, to involve his closest friends in such terrible danger.

At least, he still thought of them of his closest friends. He always had, really, no matter how many years went by with no contact between them. All through his journeys in Unova, Kalos and beyond, all the way to what had been his final journey and the long, lonely years that had followed. Sure, he'd made new friends on each journey, but no one had ever had the same impact on him as those two.

Well, those _three_, really. Because no matter how close Misty and Brock were to him, it was Pikachu who he always counted as his best friend. Even when everyone else was gone, it had always been him and Pikachu, together forever, so to speak.

He shuddered, not from the cold, but from the inescapable sense of loneliness. For the first time in his life, he had no one to count on but himself.

Well, that was just fine. If it was up to him to save everyone, then so be it. He doubted he was up to the task, and he'd have rather left it in the hands of someone more capable, but it wasn't like he had the choice. So he followed the corridor, each twist and turn leading him further into the building, until finally it split off in two directions.

He peered off to the right, trying to make out the path in front of him in the dim light. There were shapes coming towards him, and he had to suppress a gasp as he realised that they were more grunts. He pulled his head back, pressing his body firmly against the wall as he held his breath.

The group marched past Ash's corridor and up the left route, in too much of a hurry to notice him. He let out a sigh of relief and watched them continue away from him, eventually disappearing into the darkness.

At the very least, that made it easier to choose which way to go. If they were in that much of a hurry, then it probably meant that they were going to deal with the intruders. Ash supposed that that suggested Brock and Misty had proven too much for the nidoqueen, so they were okay for now at least. He wanted to believe that they had won and then left the building, but he knew they were too decent for that. They'd be searching for him now, regardless of how much danger that put them in.

He wanted to go help them, but he wasn't any use without his pokémon. Of course, given his lack of training in recent years, it was likely he wasn't any use _with_ his pokémon, but if he found Pikachu he'd at least have a fighting chance of escaping alive.

So he chose the right path, the one the grunts had just marched away from, and walked up it. At the end of it was a tile marked with a small, green dot that seemed to glow in the dark. It wasn't difficult to guess what the mark meant, and when he stepped on it, he wasn't at all surprised to see another flash of green light.

When it faded, Ash saw that he was still at the end of a dimly lit corridor, and for a moment he thought that the pad hadn't worked. As his eyes adjusted to the light, however, he noticed that he was staring at a wooden door, with a yellow sign that read "Level 10 Employees Only".

Ash tried the handle, but unsurprisingly the door didn't budge. He was about to give up and walk in the other direction when he heard footsteps coming from behind. Slowly, he turned around to see two grunts, both men, dressed in expensive-looking suits.

"Well, well, well," one of them said, a smile etched on his face. "Look at what we have here."

"You know," the other one said, "I almost thought there was no one left in Kanto stupid enough to break in here."

"Looks like it's up to us to teach him that particular lesson."

They both reached for their poké balls and threw them to the ground, releasing a golbat and a raticate. The two pokémon eyed up their competition with menacing grins.

Perhaps the grunts were expecting Ash to send out his own pokémon, because they looked rather taken aback when he simply threw his arms up in the air in defeat. He wanted to fight, but what was there he could do?

"Well that's no fun," one of the grunts said with disappointment. "Golbat, why don't you attack him anyway? I don't like cowards."

As the golbat flew at Ash's face, he gulped, anticipating the pain. But before the pokémon could make contact, there was a flash of green light as another two shapes materialised in front of Ash.

"Confusion!" Misty yelled as her golduck held its hands up in front of it. The golbat stopped in mid-air and was flung backwards, colliding with its trainer and knocking him off his feet.

Ash breathed a sigh of relief, unable to believe his luck. Sadly, though, the other grunt didn't seem too annoyed at Misty's sudden appearance. Instead, he smiled and said, "Finally, a real challenge."

"Ash, get down," Misty said. Her voice was suddenly more serious and commanding than Ash had ever heard it, and he didn't think twice before obeying.

"Hyper-beam," the grunt commanded. A beam of light surged forward from Raticate's mouth, and Misty fell to the floor, forcing a hand on Ash's back and taking him with her. The attack soared over their heads and there was a loud crashing sound from behind them, along with an unpleasant cry of pain. Ash didn't even have to look up to know that the attack had taken out Golduck.

Both he and Misty slowly picked themselves back up. The raticate was panting, but he knew that it'd be ready to attack again before Misty could send out another pokémon. "Run," she said, staring down her opponents.

"What about-"

"Run!" she yelled, interrupting him. She turned to him, tears in her eyes, and he knew that there was no point in arguing. "Leave him to me. Just… just get your pikachu back."

He nodded and turned away, the thought of abandoning her again almost too much to bear. He knew he had no choice though. The locked door was barely a door at all anymore, the hyper beam having destroyed most of the wood, and Ash knew that there was no excuse not to run to the other side of it. Still, it wasn't easy to tear himself away from Misty's side.

"Don't get yourself killed," he said, looking over his shoulder, and with that, he hopped over the remains of the door and onto the teleportation pad that lay on the other side.

There was another flash of green light, and he found himself staring directly at Giovanni.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Giovanni sat at his desk, a look of mild surprise on his face as he stared at the boy who had suddenly appeared in his office. He had been expecting this day to come, for some trainer to finally burst in in a desperate, foolish attempt to kill him. But there were a number of things about the boy that surprised him.

For one, he didn't seem to have any pokémon on him. There were no creatures by his side, ready to fight, nor were there any poké balls hanging from his belt. What's more, Giovanni had been expecting it to be someone with a burning passion, a raw determination, but it was fear, not fury, that this boy was shaking with.

A pity, really. He had always enjoyed watching the light in a trainer's eyes die out. This boy's eyes were already dead, not even filled with the same fear that had taken over his body. How such a person had gotten past Natasha and her nidoqueen he could only guess, although it was obvious that he hadn't done it alone.

There would be no fun in destroying him. Of course, that didn't mean that he could just let the boy go. The boy had, after all, broken into his office, and it was his job to make sure he didn't get out as easily as he came in.

"Speak, child," Giovanni said, his voice deep and booming. He didn't bother to get up, and he suspected that he wouldn't have to. "What is your name?"

The boy walked forwards nervously. God, he really was pathetic. Why had he even bothered trying? Didn't he know that he had no chance? "Ash Ketchum," he said. He was probably trying to sound strong, but his voice was trembling too much for that.

The name didn't ring any bells. Not that that was surprising, of course. Giovanni had made so many enemies over the years, almost none of whom he had even met in person. Hell, he struggled to remember the ones he _had_ met in person. "Well, Ash, to what do I owe this pleasure?"

"You stole my pikachu," he said. "I've come to get it back."

So this was the kid those three idiots were always going on about? He knew that they weren't exactly his strongest grunts, but if they lost to this kid so often then they were even worse than he had thought. He wondered if he should send out someone to check on the progress of their current mission.

"I am _terribly_ sorry," Giovanni said, trying his best to sound genuine. Even if the boy was putting on a rather shameless display, he was still going to have as much fun as he could. "I shall return your precious pokémon to you _immediately_."

Ash looked surprised, but he quickly regained his composure. He curled his hands into fists, as if he was anticipating a fight. The whole thing would have been admirable, if it wasn't so very sad.

"Here you go," Giovanni said, pulling out the poké ball from his belt. He had to struggle to suppress a smile as he released the pikachu onto the table. The pokémon looked up at him, awaiting its command. Those scientists on the twelfth floor had done such a good job with it. It wasn't even paying attention to its original trainer.

"Pikachu?" Ash said. His voice was wary, but hopeful, and he dropped his guard just a little.

The pokémon turned to Ash, eyeing him with curiosity. The boy looked confused, no doubt trying to work out why his _best friend_ didn't recognise him. It was a typical response. Trainers were stupid like that, thinking of pokémon as partners, rather than simple animals who could be rewired with the press of a button. Well, if that was upsetting him, maybe it was time to really give him something to cry about.

"Pikachu," Giovanni said, "this man is bothering me. Why don't you teach him a lesson?"

Ash barely had a chance to react to the words before Pikachu screeched its name, firing a bolt of lightning at its old trainer. To his credit, Ash didn't fall, and instead merely winced, trying his best to hide the pain. Pikachu didn't let up though, keeping the attack strong, only stopping when Giovanni said, "That's enough."

The boy finally collapsed, landing heavily on his knees. He was breathing heavily and his hair was frazzled, but otherwise he was unhurt. The attack hadn't been strong enough to do any real damage, which was something Giovanni was going to have to fix. Not with Pikachu, though. The rat was so weak it'd take hours to kill a man with it. No, he was going to have to bring out the big gun.

"Pikachu," Ash gasped, "I don't know… what he did to you, but you… have to snap out of it."

At that, Giovanni couldn't hold it back anymore. He let out a laugh, genuine and loud. The kid was a moron.

"Please," he continued, his voice still weak, "try to… remember… everything we've been through."

Giovanni rolled his eyes. It was funny, listening to the idiot ramble on, but he really couldn't be bothered sitting through a whole speech. No doubt, the kid would bring up a bunch of cheesy memories, trying in vain to get his pikachu to shake off the mind-control.

It would be a pointless exercise, and so Giovanni put a stop to it right there. He recalled the pikachu to its ball, and Ash let out a desperate scream of defiance. He shook his head at the boy in pity. He really was clueless.

At that moment, the phone on Giovanni's desk rang. He thought about leaving it, almost too annoyed at the interruption to pick it up, but he realised that he didn't have a choice. With everything that was going on today, it could be a number of important things, so he answered it.

"This better be important," he snapped.

"Sir, we've caught the two intruders," the grunt said.

Giovanni smiled, eyeing the boy still kneeling on his floor. "How many of these intruders were there?" he asked, choosing his words carefully to bring the most distress to Ash.

"Just the two, sir."

"Well then, why don't you just kill both of them and have this whole thing done with?" he asked. The whole thing was amusing to him, but he didn't understand why the grunt had bothered calling him. The way to deal with intruders was obvious, and he thought every one of his employees knew it well.

"It isn't that simple, sir," the grunt said. "They're gym leaders."

At that, Giovanni grimaced. Gym leaders. Great. Killing them would just create a legal mess, and it wasn't as easy as bribing the right people. No, this was a league matter, and they'd made it clear that there wasn't enough money in the world to pay them off.

Still, even if they were gym leaders, they had broken into his base. That made them criminals in the eyes of the law, so that helped. Even so, they couldn't just kill them right away. That was a sure fire way of getting unwanted attention from the league. He'd have to deal with the matter delicately.

Or would he? His plans were only a few days away from completion. Once that was over with, not even the league could stand in his way. If he just waited until then, he could kill whoever he wanted with no repercussions whatsoever.

"Sir?" the grunt said, making sure that he was still there.

""Two gym leaders, you say," Giovanni said, pleased with the gasp that got from Ash.

"Yes, sir, that's correct."

"In that case, just lock them up. I'll deal with it once the situation is more… under control."

It was evident the grunt didn't fully understand – he was undoubtedly too low levelled to know most of Giovanni's plans – but he accepted the orders and hung up.

"Well, Mister Ketchum," Giovanni said, turning his attention back to the boy, "it seems we've found your friends. I have to ask, what exactly were you thinking, coming here today? You must have realised that it would go this way, no?"

Ash pulled himself to his feet. _Now_ it was fury he was trembling with. Maybe there would be some satisfaction in killing him after all. "You bastard," the boy spat, his hands balled into fists.

Giovanni shrugged, unable to deny the claim. "I am curious as to what you're going to do next. Do you really think you can win without any pokémon to protect you?"

"I'm going to kill you," the boy said. He didn't shout, but the anger was prevalent in his voice once again.

Not that Giovanni really cared. Indeed, he only sighed as the boy ran at him, his fists raised and ready to attack.

The idiot never even made it to the desk. Once he was about half way across the room, he stopped dead in his tracks, and the look on his face and the way his muscles were straining was enough to tell Giovanni that he hadn't stopped out of choice.

"What have you done?" the boy asked, suddenly fearful again. That was it done. The anger was already gone, and his eyes were dead once more. It was all over too quickly for Giovanni to get any enjoyment out of it.

"I haven't done anything," he said. "This is all the work of my good friend here."

There was a flash of light over Giovanni's shoulder as the creature appeared behind him. It was always there now, breathing down his neck, but however uncomfortable its presence made him was balanced out by the feeling of security.

The boy was looking at it with shock, but there was something more there as well. It was almost… recognition? Was that possible? Maybe. The creature had, after all, been out of Giovanni's control for some time. Who knew what it had been doing.

"Mewtwo," Ash said dumbly.

"Ah, so you've met," Giovanni said. "A shame. I was looking forward to introducing you to it. Ah well, no matter."

"What did you do to him?" Ash asked.

"I improved it," Giovanni said, and he spoke the truth. Back then, after Mewtwo had first been created, he had built it a suit to better control its psychic powers. It was wearing a similar suit now, only with some minor changes. For one thing, it was what was allowed him to control the creature. Letting it keep its free will was a mistake he had made once, and he had been determined not to make it again.

Mewtwo turned its head to its master, its eyes glowing blue from behind the helmet. A thought ran through Giovanni's mind – _What do you want me to do?_ It wasn't his own thought, and the experience never failed to send a chill up his spine.

He shook it off quickly, though, and shrugged. "Kill him."

Ash's face was full of panic as he was lifted off the floor and flung through the air. He screamed as he flew over Geovanni's shoulder and crashed through the window. Giovanni sighed and walked to the broken glass, watching the boy's figure shrink and disappear under the afternoon mist.

"I meant snap his neck," he said, rubbing his temples in frustration. "That window's going to cost a fortune."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Ash awoke with a start, surprised for a number of reasons. First of all, he wasn't dead. Second of all, he wasn't lying at the bottom of Team Rocket's tower, and was instead spread out across the back seats of a car, the seatbelt wrapped over his stomach. He propped himself up against the door, gazing at the moving landscape through the window opposite him as he tried to remember everything that had happened.

The last thing he had any memory of was being thrown through the window and seeing the street below, coming upwards to meet him all too quickly. At that he had closed his eyes out of fear and, presumably, passed out. Everything after that was a mystery that only the people in the front seats could answer. Unfortunately, he couldn't quite get a good enough look at them to tell whether they were old friends or new enemies.

Either way, he didn't have any choice but to stay in the car and go wherever they were taking him. There was, after all, no way he could just open the door, roll out and run off unharmed. This wasn't some kind of movie - the bloody scratches he had collected from flying head-first out of a window were enough to remind him of that.

"Where are we going?" he asked, realising that he wasn't going to find out anything by sitting in silence.

The person in the front-passenger seat poked his head round. At the sight of the familiar face, Ash felt a strange mix of emotions. Confusion, surprise, relief, as well as an old rivalry bubbling away at the back of his mind. "Ah, the prodigal son finally returns to the land of the living," Gary Oak said, with the same cocky grin Ash knew so well.

Ash gritted his teeth. There was still some tension between the two of them, albeit considerably less than there once was, now that they had both mellowed out a bit. But out of all the people Ash knew in Kanto, Gary was the last one he wanted to come to his rescue. "How did you find me?" he asked, letting his last question go in favour of the more pressing ones. "Did Misty call you as well?"

"What, are you kidding?" Gary asked, an eyebrow raised. "That girl still doesn't like me at all."

"She called _me,_" the woman driving the car said.

Ash recognised the voice enough to know it was one of Misty's sisters, and the tuft of blonde hair he could see gave her away as Daisy. "Anyone else she asked for help?" he asked bitingly. "Should I expect Violet and Lily to show up too? What about Professor Oak, or Tracy? Or maybe my mum? Who else is putting themselves in danger for my sake?" He was aware that he was maybe being a little too harsh, especially considering those two had just saved his life, but he was sick and tired of people throwing their lives away just to help him. He never should have brought anyone else into this.

There was a moment of silence, perhaps as the others waited for him to calm down a bit. "For your information," Daisy said eventually, "Misty didn't ask for my help. She only texted me to let me know that she wasn't going to be able to manage the gym, and I worked out the rest from there. And make no mistake, I'm here for _her_, not for you."

"As for _me_," Gary interjected, "Daisy called up Gramps to let him know what she was doing, and he asked me to meet her here to help out."

Ash shifted uncomfortably, feeling rather ashamed of himself. "Sorry," he mumbled.

"Where is Misty anyway?" Daisy asked. Even though Ash couldn't see her properly, he suddenly realised that she was hurting just as much as she was. How awful it must have been, to come all the way to Celadon only to find herself too late to stop her sister.

And now it was up to him to deliver the truly bad news.

"She's… she's still in the tower," he said, and Daisy made a pained noise, somewhere between a gasp and a sob. "Brock too. They were caught. But I don't think they're dead. Giovanni said something about locking them up."

Even Ash could see that Daisy was crying now. Her shoulders were hunched forwards as she leaned over the steering wheel, and Gary put a comforting hand on her arm. "Hey, don't worry," he said. "They won't hurt her. Giovanni's too scared of the league for that."

"How come you survived?" Daisy asked. There was a bitterness in her voice that Ash couldn't blame her for. After all, it had just been dumb luck. If skill had anything to do with it, he'd be dead and Misty and Brock would be in the car.

"I don't know," he said. "I guess it was thanks to their protection. And you two, I suppose. How did you save me anyway?"

"Well, we were standing outside the tower," Gary said, "contemplating whether or not to go in. That's when I saw you, falling towards us like a meteor. I couldn't tell who you were, of course, but I knew I had to do something, so I had Alakazam teleport you to safety. Imagine my surprise when I found you in his arms. Almost made me wish I'd let you fall…"

Ash might have laughed at that, but he was too worried about his friends. Instead, he turned his attention back to the window. It was then that he realised that they were driving past trees, and he recognised the road as the one he and Misty had taken earlier that day. "Where are we going?" he asked, suddenly alert.

"Pallet Town," Daisy said, and it was obvious she was struggling to keep her voice steady.

"But we have to go back!" Ash exclaimed. "Misty and Brock are in trouble, they need our help!"

Gary looked at Ash with pity. "There's nothing we can do. We need to regroup at Gramps' lab."

"What do you mean there's nothing we can do?!" Ash asked, the fury in him building. "We _need_ to save them!"

"It isn't that simple," Daisy said. "There are… agreements."

"What kind of agreements?" Ash asked, suspecting that he wasn't going to like the answer.

"Well, for starters, Giovanni has bribes on half of Kanto's police officers," Gary said. "The other half, he's blackmailing. Just know that, whatever we do, he has the law on his side."

"I don't care about any of that," Ash said. "My friends are in trouble. No laws are going to stop me from trying to save them."

"Just, please try to understand," Gary said. "Do you think that Giovanni really has any chance against the league? We're talking gym leaders, elite four, rangers, scientists. It would be simple to organise them all together."

"So why haven't you?" Ash asked.

"We have," Gary said simply. "But it's still not enough. Like I said, Giovanni has the law on his side. That puts us in danger. With enough strings, he could shut down everything. No more gyms, no more poké centres, no more poké marts. If he wanted, he could stop the production and selling of poké balls, or outlaw trainers altogether."

"Then why hasn't he?"

"Because the higher-ups at the league made him a deal," Daisy said. "As long as we don't interfere with him, he won't interfere with us. It's better for everyone. A war between the league and Team Rocket would be a mess. Both sides would suffer serious casualties. None of us want that. Do you understand?"

Ash did understand. Everything made sense now. Why Giovanni still had full control over the region, why no one had tried to stop him, why things had gotten so bad since he'd left. "Yeah, I get it," he said. "You're all a bunch of cowards."

Gary snorted. "Maybe so. But you're the one who ran away."

It wasn't said as a light-hearted joke. It wasn't even like the things he had said in the past, all his stupid, childish insults. No, it was the truth, plain and simple. And it hurt. A lot. Ash took to staring out the window for the rest of the journey, sitting in complete silence.

Gary was right. He was a coward. Maybe that's just what life did to people. Maybe being a coward was what it meant to be an adult. Misty and Brock hadn't been cowards, though. They had put everything aside – the league, their jobs, _themselves_ – just because he needed them.

But look where that had gotten them. Locked up in a tower, with no hope of escape. And beyond that, they're bravery had damaged the deals the league had made. What was to stop Giovanni from killing them? What was to stop him from killing everyone?

Ash knew that being brave would mean marching up that tower and rescuing his friends. But he'd barely survived with their help. What chance did he stand on his own? And how much more trouble would that bravery end up putting everyone else in?

Maybe the league had the right idea. Maybe making agreements and compromises was the best option.

Maybe there really was nothing to do.

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Misty sat against the wall of her cell, her legs pulled into her arms and her head resting against her lap. It was difficult to stay composed, but she didn't want to give her captors the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

She was alone. Brock was in some other cell – she'd seen one of the grunts bring him down sometime after her own capture. She hoped Ash had escaped, although it admittedly seemed unlikely.

God, when she'd thought of breaking into the tower, this was not how she had planned it going. She had told herself repeatedly that their chances of actually rescuing Pikachu were tiny, but she'd never really believed that to be true. Hadn't they always won, no matter how low the odds were?

Suddenly everything had become all too real. Everyone had warned her not to mess with Team Rocket, from her sisters to her fellow gym leaders to Professor Oak. She'd never really paid much attention to them, though. Their words had just enough impact to stop her from trying anything to dangerous – it was abundantly clear that, even if she ventured into the tower and made it out alive, it would be the end of her career as a leader – but apparently not enough to stop her from getting her hopes up.

It was all Ash's fault. Even as broken as he had seemed, with those dead eyes and his sad smile, he had sparked something in her from long ago. Just being near him had made her feel so strong, like everything was going to be okay, no matter what. Maybe it was the same for Brock.

That was, of course, foolish. Ash had been no help at all. If anything, he'd made things worse. If she hadn't been trying to protect him, would she have even gotten captured?

She couldn't help but smile. There she was, stuck in a hopeless situation, blaming Ash for all her troubles. Maybe things hadn't changed as much as she'd thought.

Well, there was one thing that hadn't changed, anyway. Her feelings for him. No matter how much she told herself that he was long gone, that he wasn't the same man as he had once been, there was a small part of her that wouldn't listen.

Okay, maybe it wasn't all that small. Because sitting there in the dusty cell, her thoughts should have been elsewhere. She should have been thinking of how much trouble her and Brock were in, how badly she had damaged the agreements between the league and Team Rocket, how much danger her friends and family were in now thanks to her.

But she didn't. She thought of nothing but Ash, and her heart was beating heavily in her chest as she did so. At that moment, she didn't even wish to be free. She only wished he was sitting with her, telling her that everything was okay. That's all she ever needed, and it's all she'd ever need. And so, she sat there, running over old memories to distract herself from everything else.

Well, there was _one_ other thought on her mind – how was she going to free herself from her prison. After all, it was impossible to think about Ash without feeling at least little bit more hopeful.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

Pallet Town looked no different than the day Ash had left. He wasn't sure what he'd been expecting, really. All the buildings to have collapsed, maybe, or the grass to be brown and dead, or the sky to have been burnt red and filled with smoke. Maybe he was just expecting for some sign that the place wasn't the same without him, that once he'd left it'd fall to ruin.

As he looked out the window of the car, though, he saw no discernible differences. There wasn't even any fearful tension, like there had been in Celadon, nor were there homeless people begging, or buildings towering towards the clouds. Rather, people were still out and about, the adults tending to their gardens in the afternoon sun and the kids playing their childish games. Everything was just as he'd left it.

The thought made him smile. At least Kanto still had at least one place of innocent, joyful hope.

As they passed by his house, he pressed his face against the window, trying to make out any signs of life inside. There was nothing. The lights were off, the curtains were drawn, and the gate was shut. The sight made him worried at first, but he noticed with relief that the garden was still well-kept. Wherever his mother was, she hadn't been gone long.

Daisy parked the car at the bottom of a hill. "Okay, we're here," she announced, stepping outside.

Ash remembered the town well enough that he didn't have to ask where 'here' was. There was a path of steps leading up the grassy hill, and he knew that at the top sat the lab. He stepped outside and looked up, a lump rising in his throat.

Something wasn't sitting right with him. He felt… off, like he wasn't supposed to be there. A darkness had grown in him since he'd left, and it seemed wrong to taint such a happy place with it. It was as if his mere presence had cast a shadow over the town, and he feared that it would never go away.

He climbed the stairs, just as he had done back at the start of his journey. The action was the same, but it felt so much different now. Back then, he'd been so excited, so full of life, and he'd taken the stairs two at a time, desperate to arrive in time to get his first pokémon. Now, there was so much weighing down on him that the trip was harder, more exhausting.

He cast his mind back to those first days, trying to bring back some of that youthful enthusiasm, but every good memory was ruined by newer, more painful ones.

The first time he'd laid eyes on Pikachu was a memory he had cherished dearly, even if the beginning of their friendship had contained more shouting and electrocution than he'd have liked. But now, thinking of it just brought back images of Pikachu being stolen in Kalos, and then turning against him in Giovanni's office.

Then there were all the times with Misty and Brock, which were truly wonderful, albeit often difficult. Again, those thoughts were damaged. He'd abandoned them, twice now – once ten years ago and then again that very morning. There was no more happiness there, just guilt.

By the time he had reached the top of the steps, he was gasping for breath and there were tears in his eyes. "Looks like you're getting too old for this," Gary said with a smirk as he joined him at the top.

Ash would have snapped back with a clever retort, but he was too exhausted. Not that Gary or Daisy were doing much better, though. Despite the smug satisfaction on his face, Gary was breathing rather heavily as well, and Daisy was clutching her back. Why had the walk seemed so easy before, yet so difficult now? Ash supposed that adult bodies just weren't made for stairs that steep.

"Come on," Gary said, trying to mask his exhaustion. "Let's go."

Like everything else in the town, the lab looked just as Ash had remembered it. There was a deep, painful sense of nostalgia as he gazed at it, which only increased as they walked inside.

"Gramps!" Gary called out as he entered the foyer. "That's us back!"

There was a shuffling noise from behind one of the doors as it swung open. It was everything Ash could do to not break down at the sight of the professor. He had gotten old. Of course he had, that's what time does. But maybe because everything else had stayed the same, Ash had been expecting him to as well.

The lines on his face were more apparent than they had ever been, and his hair had lost what little colour it had left. He was thinner now as well, his lab coat hanging loosely off of him, and he was leaning heavily on a wooden walking stick. There was a solemn, serious look on his face, far removed from the smile Ash remembered, but the moment that he looked at the group, he seemed to light up.

"Hey professor," Ash said, his voice almost sounding like a child's again. He suspected that, no matter how old he grew, Professor Oak would always make him feel like that reckless ten-year old kid he'd once been.

"I think you three had better come this way," the professor said, walking back through the door.

It hadn't exactly been the welcome Ash had been expecting, and he shot a confused look at Gary. Gary just shrugged and followed after his grandfather, with Ash and Daisy sticking closely behind.

The room they had walked into was a dining room, with a large, wooden table sitting in the middle. Despite its size, there were only three people sitting there, including the professor who had taken his seat immediately. Ash froze in shock when he saw the other two. Sitting on the professor's left was Tracy, looking taller and more mature than he had once been. But it was the woman on the professor's right that really took him by surprise, for sitting there, looking up at him with wide eyes, was his mother.

They stared at each other for a moment, neither of them sure how to react. They had of course talked frequently over the past few years, but only over the video-phone, and that couldn't really compare to meeting in person. Eventually, though, his mother stood up and hurried towards him, pulling him into a wet, teary hug.

He was still too surprised to move at first, but after a while he put his arms around her, firmly holding her shoulders.

"I'm so glad you're back," she whispered softly. Ash had a feeling that if she tried to speak any louder, her voice would fail her. After a while, she cleared her throat and pushed him away from her, holding him at a distance. "Let me get a look at you. Oh, look at how much you've _grown_."

He gave her a sad smile. He wasn't the only one who had changed. She looked so much smaller than he remembered, almost as thin as the professor, and her hair was unkempt. He realised then how much he'd hurt her. No, not just her – _everyone_. Every smile they had given him, every reassuring glance, every friendly word – it was all for show. They were all just trying to hide their true feelings, to spare him from finding out the truth.

He knew they didn't hate him. Maybe they had at one point, but they had all moved on from that. No, it was more like they were filled with an intense sadness, one that he had caused. And even if they didn't hate him, it didn't matter, because at that moment, seeing what he'd done to his own mother, he hated himself more than anyone else could.

"I'm sorry," he said. She shook her head, as if to say that he had nothing to apologise for, but he saw through the lie. "No, I am. I'm sorry. And I swear that I'll do whatever it takes to make up for it."

"Oh, Ash," she said, wiping away her tears. "You don't need to make up for anything. Just you being here is all I need."

He wasn't sure how true that was, but he could sense that there was no point in arguing, so he gave her another quick hug and joined her at the table. Gary and Daisy had already taken their seats and were quickly filling in the details for the professor and Tracy.

"So, Ash," Professor Oak said, "you went into the Rocket's tower with Misty and Brock, correct?"

Ash nodded, and he could feel his mother's frightened gaze on his neck. "Yeah. They took Pikachu there, so we went to get him back. We failed, though, and Misty and Brock got caught…"

The professor sighed and leaned back in his chair. "This is a problem… I thought those two knew better than to do something so reckless."

Daisy snorted. "Telling my sister not to be reckless is like telling the ocean not to be wet."

"Yes, well, be that as it may," the professor said, "we could be in serious trouble. It's easy for Giovanni to take two gym leaders breaking onto his property as a threat from the league. If we don't handle this carefully, we could end up getting into serious trouble with the police."

"Serious trouble?" Ash said. "Two of our friends have been captured. How much more trouble could we get ourselves into?"

"It isn't that simple, I'm afraid," Tracy said. "If we try to save them, it could start a war between the police and the league. There's no way we could get out of that without putting civilians at serious risk."

"Well can't somebody else go?" Ash asked. "Someone not affiliated with the league?"

Gary scoffed. "Like who? Name me one trainer strong enough to take down Giovanni."

Ash gave a defeated sigh. He was right. There was no single person strong enough to take Giovanni down, especially considering he now had full control over Mewtwo. But surely there was something they could do? If there was, he couldn't think of it, and so he promptly closed his mouth and stopped talking.

"Well, there's no way we can work this out today," the professor said. "We'll just have to wait for Team Rocket to make the first move, and then we'll see what we can do from there."

It didn't seem like a great plan to Ash, but he couldn't think of anything alternatives. Just sitting there and waiting didn't sit well with him, but what else was there to do?

"Anyway," the professor said, forcing a small smile, "I believe it's time for dinner. Delia, do you think you've made enough for Ash as well? Nothing helps you feel better like a good, solid meal."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

Ash pushed open the front door, stepping outside into the cool air. It was late – everyone else had already gone to bed, and they all probably thought he had done the same. Everyone was staying at the lab overnight. The professor was, after all, one of the most important members of the league, so if any news came from Team Rocket it'd reach the lab first.

Ash was surprised that any of them were getting any sleep. How could they just shut off while their lives, not to mention the lives of their friends, were in such grave danger? Maybe they were used to the worry. It was, after all, a dark time. The people of Kanto had probably seen more danger than Ash would have liked to think.

But even if they were used to it, he certainly wasn't. He'd tried to lie down and close his eyes, but the faces of his friends kept flashing through his mind. Where were they now? Misty and Brock were locked up in some dingy cell, he presumed, while Pikachu was still with Giovanni, carrying out whatever cruel tasks he ordered.

The thought of it made Ash sick. He looked up at the sky, searching for some distant star to wish on. But it was a cloudy night, and there was nothing above him but the darkness of the night.

"Couldn't sleep?" a voice asked.

Ash turned his head around slowly to see Professor Oak standing in the doorway, both hands firmly placed on his walking stick. "No," Ash said. "I'm too worried."

The professor smiled, but it wasn't the sad, pitiful smile from before. Rather, it seemed genuine, like the way he had smiled in the past. "Same here," he said. "The others have learnt how to deal with the worry, but it was a trick I could never master."

"How do they deal with it?" Ash asked curiously.

"They tell themselves that it's hopeless," the professor said with a shrug. "It's easier to cast aside your fears if they're out of your hands."

Ash scoffed and turned away from the old man. "Are you telling me it's not hopeless?"

Professor Oak shuffled forwards until he was standing next to Ash, joining him in gazing up at the starless sky. "I don't know," he admitted. "But I certainly can't get rid of the tiny shred of hope I have."

"And what's that?"

The professor didn't answer him, and instead stood in silence for some time. When he did speak again, it was to say, "Do you remember what you said at dinner? About someone not affiliated with the league taking down Giovanni?"

Ash nodded. Even when he'd first said it, he'd known deep down that it was a stupid, naïve suggestion, and he hadn't been at all surprised when Gary had shot it down instantly.

"That's what I've been hoping for," the professor said. "A trainer strong and brave enough to do what's necessary."

"There are plenty of strong trainers out there," Ash said. "But I don't think any of them are stronger than Giovanni."

The professor chuckled, which seemed rather inappropriate to Ash. "Giovanni's just a human," Professor Oak said. "He's not invincible. No one is. I'm sure there are plenty of trainers who could beat him."

Ash snorted again. He had always looked up to Professor Oak, but now he couldn't have been more wrong. It wasn't his fault. He couldn't have known about Mewtwo. Well, Ash wasn't going to tell him. Since he'd arrived back in Kanto, he hadn't seen a whole lot of hope, and the last thing he wanted to do was break the one person who hadn't totally given up.

"Do you know why no one's tried to fight Giovanni?" the professor asked.

Ash thought about the question. He could come up with a number of reasons – getting through the Rocket Tower alive was almost impossible, Giovanni was unbelievably strong, and even if you somehow managed to beat him, the police would just arrest you. He didn't say any of that though. He knew the professor well enough to know that the answer wasn't anything that simple. Instead, he just shook his head.

"It's because they think they can't," the professor explained. "That's Giovanni's greatest weapon. He's made himself seem unstoppable. That's why he built that imposing tower, that's why he keeps most of his grunts out in the streets, and that's why he blackmailed the police. He's made his defences seem impenetrable, when in actuality they're not that difficult to get past. You just need to believe that you can."

"Well, you haven't done a very good job of inspiring that belief in the league," Ash said. "I heard you over dinner. You sounded just as hopeless as the rest of them."

Professor Oak sighed. "Yes, I suppose I did. But the thing is, Giovanni has connections with more than just the police. Even if the league managed to take him down, a lot of powerful people would lose a lot of money. They could shut the league down in a matter of days, and we can't afford to risk that happening."

Ash furrowed his brow, not fully understanding what the professor was saying. Was that really the reason? "Are you saying that the league is more important than the lives of the people who live in Kanto?"

"No, of course not," the professor said. "But think of it like this. Team Rocket is an organisation that inspires fear, while the league is an organisation that inspires hope. If we took down Giovanni, the league would go down, and we'd lose that hope."

"But you'd also get rid of the fear!" Ash exclaimed.

The professor shook his head. "No. It's all too easy to inspire fear, I'm afraid. Another organisation would rise up and take Team Rocket's place. You've seen it yourself, on your journeys. Just think of all those other organisations, just as terrifying as Team Rocket. Without the league, they'd have free reign to do what they wanted."

"So what do we do?" Ash asked. "You said you had hope. Where is it?"

The professor turned to him and placed a firm hand on each of his shoulders, holding him at eye-level. "Right here," he said with a smile.

Ash stared at him, wide-eyed. When he finally grasped the professor's meaning, he burst into laughter. That was the most ridiculous thing the professor had ever said, and frankly that was saying a lot. Surely he was joking?

But Professor Oak didn't let go of his shoulders, nor did he drop his smile. When Ash saw that, his laughter trailed off into a stunned silence. "Oh god, you're serious," he said.

The professor nodded. "It's always been here, Ash. Even when you'd left, I never lost that hope."

"I don't know if you noticed, Professor," Ash said solemnly, "but I did."

The professor nodded with understanding. "Yes, so I can see. You used to have so much fire in your eyes. Your mother said it had gone out, but I suppose I didn't believe it until I saw you in person."

"So, do you still believe in that hope?" Ash asked.

The professor finally let go of his shoulders and took a few steps back, distancing himself from Ash. "Ash, I'm going to ask you a personal question now," he said, "and I want you to know that you don't have to answer it if you don't want to."

"Go on," Ash said, already guessing at what was coming next.

"What happened to you?" the professor asked. "Why did you hide yourself away from us like that?"

Ash sighed and turned his gaze back to the sky. He was tempted to lie, or at least give the same half-truth he'd given Misty. But here, standing with the one man he'd always looked up to, he knew that it was time to tell the full reason. "I lost, professor," he said. "Like always. I got to the quarter finals of another league, and I lost."

"Like you said, you've lost before," the professor said. "Why was this any different?"

"It wasn't," Ash admitted. "But I guess it was the last straw. Like always, I had friends there who believed in me. I saw them after the battle and I… I choked up. I was too ashamed to bring myself to say anything. So I left them there, at the league, and I ran. I hopped on the first plane to Kalos, fully planning to get a flight from there to Kanto, but when I arrived I froze. I kept thinking, what if the same thing happened with my friends back here? What if I couldn't talk to them either? I always lose, professor. That's what I do. I realised then and there that I wasn't cut out to be a pokémon master, and it left me feeling so defeated that I couldn't tell anyone about it. So many people stood by me because of my never-give-up attitude, and there I was, giving up. I'm not saying it was a rational fear, but I was scared that if I told anyone I was quitting, they wouldn't want anything to do with me. So I bought an apartment, got a sensible job in a poké mart, and I hid out in Kalos."

Professor Oak gave him a sad kind of smile. "You're right about one thing. That wasn't a rational fear. Your friends didn't just stick by you because of your attitude. They stuck by you because you're kind, and you're brave, and you're compassionate."

"Not anymore," Ash said. "It wasn't kind, or brave, or _compassionate_ to abandon all my friends like that."

"Maybe not," the professor admitted. "But that doesn't mean you don't have any kindness or courage left in you. In fact, I don't even think you'll give up. Not now, when your friends need you." He reached and gave Ash a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder, then turned to head back into the lab.

"But what am I supposed to do?" Ash asked, his voice practically begging for an answer. "I'm not as strong as I was back then. I don't stand a chance against Giovanni."

The professor stopped walking. "Yes you do, Ash." He reached into the inside of his coat and pulled something out, but Ash couldn't tell what it was in the darkness. "Have you already forgotten? To me, you were, are and always will be a champion."

With one, sharp movement that Ash didn't even know the old man was capable of, the professor turned and threw the object he was holding. It nearly soared past Ash, but he instinctively reached out and just managed to catch it in his fingers. He held it in front of it, staring at it with teary eyes.

It was beaten up, faded and dirty, but he still recognised it instantly. His hat. The one he had worn all those years ago, at the start of his journey. How the professor had gotten his hands on it, he couldn't be sure, but he was immensely grateful to have it returned to him after all those years.

He adjusted the straps and pulled it on. It was a little tight, having been made for a ten year old, but it still fit, even if it did feel like it was squeezing his skull. He didn't care, though. For putting that hat on brought hundreds of memories flooding back to him, none of them tainted by the sadness of the past few years.

He remembered getting zapped by pikachu for the first time, and then the difficult day that followed. He remembered getting chased by the spearow, and Pikachu saving his life. He remembered meeting Misty and frying her bike, then arguing with her about it in the poké centre. There was his first catch, his first evolution, his first gym battle, befriending Brock, travelling all throughout the region with his friends by his side and beating the gym leaders until he had all eight badges.

He had lost his first league, and his second, but it didn't matter, because he had had them. And even when they had both left, he had always held her in his heart, along with all his other friends. May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Clemont, Bonnie, Serena, and everyone after that, and all the pokémon he had caught on those journeys.

How had he forgotten such a simple thing? He couldn't give up, not while he still remembered their names, their faces. He had to keep fighting, for them, until he finally won. Maybe he had given up on his dream of becoming a pokémon master, but that had never really mattered. That was just the excuse he had used to go on so many adventures, to make new friends. To have _fun_. _So, so much fun_.

And now his three closest friends were in grave danger, and he had to save them, whatever it took. No more giving up, no more hopelessness. Just him, and his friends, and his courage.

Because he remembered now. He may not have been a league champion, but he wasn't just a trainer either. He was the best.

He was going to fight Giovanni. And he was going to _win_.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

James pressed himself firmly against the back wall of the Celadon department store, his eyes anxiously searching for potential witnesses. There were none, of course. He had only seen a handful of civilians wandering Celadon's streets during the day – now that it was the middle of the night, the town was practically deserted, except for his fellow Rocket grunts.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that, really. He'd been out of Kanto for some time, exploring other regions with Jessie and Meowth. Finding out that Kanto was fully controlled by Team Rocket was, to say the least, surprising. Why hadn't anyone bothered to tell them about that?

That, though, was just one, small item on a long list of things that James wasn't sure how to feel about, and he knew his two partners well enough to see that they were having the same doubts. For one thing, the boss's reaction to Pikachu had been lukewarm at best. He hadn't seemed angry or upset, but he was also nowhere near as delighted as the three of them had fantasised he would be.

Then there was the thunder stone. Not only had they found that there were very few thunderstones left in Kanto, the only one they had found was being sold in the department store for a frankly exorbitant price. Not that that really mattered – they were Team Rocket after all, thieving was what they were known for. It was just that stealing evolutionary stones was for lower level grunts, not the people who had just brought the boss a rare and powerful pokémon.

And James wasn't even sure how to feel about giving the boss the thunderstone in the first place. Was evolving Pikachu something he really wanted to let happen? The pokémon would become stronger, of course, but James had grown oddly… attached to it over the years. It almost felt like he was giving a part of his past up. He could kind of see where why the twerp had refused to let it evolve.

Still, they were just minor quibbles. He was a part of Team Rocket. He lived to serve the boss. If the boss wanted a thunderstone, he'd get it for him, no questions asked.

His heart was drumming in his chest. How long had it been since the three of them had tried to pull off an operation like this? It was exciting, sneaking and stealing. It was one of the main reasons he'd stayed with Team Rocket for so long. Well, that and the company.

There was a sudden buzz in his pocket, and even though he'd been expecting it, it still made him jump a bit. He pulled the device out, holding it in one hand. It worked as a walkie-talkie, but it looked even cheaper, just a small, grey rectangle with a red button and a speaker. It vibrated again, and he held down the button.

"All clear," Jessie's voice said, crackling out of the device.

"Understood," he replied, before taking his finger off the button and slipping the device back into his pocket.

It had been Jessie's job to hack the cameras, using one of the few high-tech pieces of equipment they'd been allowed to take from the storage rooms. By 'all clear', she must have meant that the room he was standing next to was empty.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out another device, this one shaped like a pen. He twisted the bottom and the tip fired out a laser. He pointed it and the window and, with a circular motion, cut a hole big enough for him to climb through.

Quietly, he climbed inside. The room was unlit, but he could still tell that Jessie had been correct. Maybe they were getting better at this whole criminal thing after all. He sneaked over to the back of the room and tried the door handle, grateful to find it unlocked. Meowth had already been there.

Meowth was really the key to the operation, pun intended. It was his job to sneak through the air vents and pick the locks of various doors, giving James a clear path to where they knew the thunderstone was kept. It would have been easier to let Meowth steal it himself but, alas, the store owners were apparently too smart for that. All the evolutionary stones were kept in a high-security room, thanks to their apparent rareness, and so it was up to James and a particular set of tools to get the job done.

He crept down the dark corridors, the walkie-talkie once again in his hand. He kept the button pressed down permanently now, letting Jessie warn him of any night-guards.

"There's one up ahead and on your right," he heard her whisper. "Use one of the bombs."

She wasn't referring to a real bomb, of course - their methods had never been quite that extreme. No, she was talking about one of the other devices James had on him, which he pulled out of the pouch on his belt as he pressed himself up against the wall.

The device was round and smooth, and about the size of a tennis ball. He rolled it down the corridor to where Jessie had said the guard was and waited in hiding. He heard a confused grunt from the guard, followed by the distinct hissing sound of the gas exuding from the ball. There was a thud as the guard fell to the floor, and James finally pulled himself away from the wall.

He made his way down the corridor on his right, trying to move both quickly and quietly. The guard was lying on the floor and James stepped over his body, doing his best not to trip up. The elevator was only a few feet away now, and James pressed the button with his thumb.

Normally, the elevators didn't run at night, forcing the guards to use the stairs. However, Jessie hadn't just hacked into the security cameras – she'd hacked just about every piece of electronic equipment in the store. And so, the elevator arrived in no time at all.

James stepped inside and hit the button for the third floor, breathing a sigh of relief at the brief moment of respite. It didn't last, though, as he heard Jessie's voice mutter, "Uh-oh…"

"Uh-oh?" he repeated, worried. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, we may have made a mistake," she said sheepishly.

It shouldn't have been surprising – mistakes were a common occurrence for them – but it still made him feel frustrated. Were they just destined to fail, every single time? "What kind of mistake?" he asked.

"Well, let's just say that elevators aren't exactly silent…"

_Ah, dammit_. They should have thought of that. He'd have passed it off as a rookie mistake, if it wasn't for the fact they'd been in the business for years. "How many guards?" he asked, fearing the answer.

"Two on every floor," she said. "And they're all waiting outside the elevator doors."

Well, it's not like he had much of a choice. The only thing he could now was accept his fate. Maybe Jessie or Meowth could find some daring way to save him.

The elevator shuddered to a halt and the doors slid open. Just as Jessie had said, there were two guards, both holding poké balls and torches in their hands. "Um, sorry," James said, as apologetically as he could manage.

"Get out here," one of the guards grunted angrily, flashing his torch in at James. James did as he said, holding a hand in front of his face to protect his eyes from the light.

Once he was outside, his muscles tensed involuntarily, waiting for one of them to attack him. But a moment passed, and then another, and another. He relaxed slightly, confused why neither of them were doing anything.

Both guards were looking at him with amusement. "Why didn't you say you were a Rocket?" one of them asked.

"Uh…" James said, not entirely sure what was going on.

"I didn't think anyone still wore that uniform," the other one whispered to his friend. "What're you hear for, pal?"

That was a question James could answer. He straightened his back and said, with as much confidence as he could muster, "I'm here for your thunderstone. And I'm not leaving until I get it."

"Hey, don't worry about it," one of the guards said. "I'll get it for you. You just wait here, and I'll be right back."

James stared at the man in confusion as he walked down the dimly lit corridor. What the hell was going on?

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Ash smiled to himself as he leaned against the wooden fence, gazing upon all the pokémon cared for by the lab. For the first time in years, his head was clear. There was still guilt, sure, and some shame to go with it. But he remembered now what had long been forgotten. His friends cared about him.

He'd have all the time in the world to apologise to everyone, to make amends. First, though, he was going to have to save the three who were closest to him. And he knew just how to do it.

Giovanni was strong – far stronger than Ash could ever hope to be. On his side, he had the police, the courts, one of the strongest pokémon in existence, and an army of grunts. But none of that mattered, because despite all of that, Giovanni was alone. He had an army, sure, but Ash had _friends_.

Would that be enough to win? Ash didn't have the answer to that. He didn't _need_ an answer, though. After all, he'd faced strong opponents before, opponents whose capabilities he had never been able to comprehend. That had never stopped him. Every time he'd dive in headfirst - no strategy, no plan, no clue. All he'd ever had were his friends, his pokémon and his determination. That's all he'd ever needed to win, and it's all he'd ever need.

Tonight, he only needed one last thing. Over the past few hours, he'd been reunited with so many old, familiar faces, and it was time for one final reunion.

He looked up at the creature standing before him. When their eyes made contact, their faces both broke into wide grins.

"Hello, old friend."

―――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――――

Jessie, James and Meowth walked down the street, slowly making their way towards the Rocket Tower. The thunderstone was safely stored in James' pouch, all ready to be handed over to the boss. For once, they had actually succeeded.

Only, it didn't feel like it. Rather, it actually felt _worse_ than their countless failures. James was having difficulty putting the feeling into words, though, which is why he instead chose to stay quiet.

"I'm just going to come out and say it," Jessie said, breaking the uneasy silence. "That was really anti-climactic."

James sighed. She was right, of course. After the guards had caught him, one of them had simply gone and retrieved the thunderstone for him. He and Meowth had then left the building through the front door, the guards all but waving them off.

Meowth shrugged. "Eh, who are we to complain? They made our job easier." James could tell that the pokémon was trying to sound nonchalant about the whole thing, but it was clear he was just as disappointed as him and Jessie.

"I know," Jessie admitted, "but I was looking forward to a good, old fashioned heist. We haven't been able to pull one off in ages, and…"

"And you thought we might finally win the boss's respect," James said, finishing the sentence for her. "Yeah, me too."

"Well, we'll just do better next time," Meowth said. "We'll catch him a whole bunch of rare pokémon. Then he'll have to respect us!"

"Oh, stop kidding yourself!" Jessie snapped. "Let's face it, Giovanni's got about as much respect for us as we have for the twerps. No amount of rare pokémon is going to change that."

The three of them simultaneously stopped walking. None of them looked at each other, instead staring dead ahead at the Rocket Tower.

James knew that Jessie was right, and he could tell that Meowth knew it too. Maybe they had always known, deep down. Giovanni didn't care about them. Why would he? When was the last time they'd actually successfully stolen anything? He'd have probably fired them, if he could have been bothered.

"I miss the old days," Meowth said. He sounded more dejected than James had ever seen him. "When it was just us and da twerps, I mean. Before all… this." He threw his paws up and looked around, and James understood exactly what he was getting at.

They had been out of the region for so long that, by the time they had gotten back, Team Rocket had changed. Everyone else had moved on without them. All James had wanted to do was make a living from stealing stuff. But now, Team Rocket had successfully taken over all of Kanto. What was the point of stealing when you practically owned everything in the region already?

"So what do you suggest?" Jessie asked. "We just leave Team Rocket?"

At those words, James entire body tensed up. He turned his head to his partner and looked at her, wide-eyed. "Why not?"

She looked at him and laughed, shrill and loud. "James, what are you saying? We can't just quit!"

"Why not?" he repeated. "Because Giovanni wouldn't let us?"

"Well, yes," Jessie said. "He'd sooner kill us than let us quit."

"She's got a point," Meowth chimed in.

"I don't care," James said. "We're criminals. We shouldn't be playing by anyone's rules. If Giovanni thinks he can tell us what to do, then… then I say we remind him what it means to be Team Rocket!"

Jessie looked stunned for a moment, but it wasn't long before her lips curled into a smile. "You know, I think you might be right. Let's show Giovanni that we're more than just pawns in his game."

"Alright, count me in too," Meowth said. "But if we all end up dead, I'll never forgive you two."


End file.
